Friday, April 25, 2014

TRIED FLIP-FLOP PAPER PIECING

I have MANY quilting books. I especially like to eventually try out different techniques for making miniature quilts. I'm always open to learning new ways to make blocks more precise. I'm not really good at cracking the books and actually making projects. But this morning when I woke up too early I decided to get out some scraps and try out a couple of books from the book FLIP-FLOP PAPER PIECING
I have seen a couple of MARY KAY MOUTON'S quilts in shows. I was especially impressed with her miniature with the same name as her book.
I decided to try a couple of blocks to see how to do it.

I did two Birds in the air that finished at 1.5" and a churn dash that finished at 1". Both of these blocks would normally be done in sections. Bird in the air would be done in two, and the churn dash would be done in a minimum of three, and that is after making half square triangle blocks. Pretty hard on a really small scale. Flip-flop piecing is done on a foundation. Instead of having pieces, the entire block is printed out as one piece, and you piece everything on that one foundation without cutting it apart. It is done by normal paper-piecing and hand-stitching or fusing certain pieces. In my opinion it was just as time consuming. But I think that once you got a few under your belt, it would be a great way to make tiny blocks like the churn dash. Personally, I would stick with regular paper piecing for most blocks 2" and above. But then, as you have probably figured out by now, I am a glutton for punishment.. So it's your choice.
You do have to be careful what kind of fabrics to go with. These blocks are Cherrywood Hand dyes, which most of the time are the most awesome fabric for anything. But especially with the tiny block, they were a little too bulky which could turn out to be a problem. Might depend on the block though. My quilt in the museum is made of Cherrywoods and has 2" finished blocks. It looked fine. I think though that the smaller you go, the lighter weight your fabric choice should be.